Brierly & MacKenzie Kuhudzayi | RFI Student Serviceship Alumni
Rural Futures Institute
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05/31/2017
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11
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Meet alums Brierly and MacKenzie Kuhudzayi who worked in Cozad at Camp Komeca last summer.
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- [00:00:01.123](joyful light music)
- [00:00:05.384]Our serviceship might be
- [00:00:07.459]a little more unique in that it really dealt more
- [00:00:09.559]with people, than with doing things.
- [00:00:13.192]Initially, the plan was for us to
- [00:00:15.688]create a marketing plan and a strategic plan for
- [00:00:20.033]Camp Comeca which is a Methodist camp just outside of Cozad.
- [00:00:24.771]Once we got there, we realized that there were some
- [00:00:26.693]other priorities that the camp and the community had.
- [00:00:30.697]So essentially we listened to the camp
- [00:00:34.370]and we listened to Cozad, and we put together a plan
- [00:00:39.614]of how that relationship could be strengthened.
- [00:00:45.442]I'd read a lot about rural communities,
- [00:00:48.023]and what makes them tick.
- [00:00:49.490]And I'd read case studies on small towns,
- [00:00:51.877]and what they are doing to turn themselves around.
- [00:00:55.665]For Nebraska I think it's especially important
- [00:00:57.557]cause there are a lot of rural communities.
- [00:00:59.610]They have big dreams and they have places they wanna be
- [00:01:02.503]and things they wanna develop.
- [00:01:04.051]But sometimes they need somebody to come alongside them.
- [00:01:06.932]And so Arafi is good at either having the resources
- [00:01:09.465]or the connections or have the ability
- [00:01:11.670]to ask the right questions so that the community can take
- [00:01:14.606]the next steps that it wants to take.
- [00:01:19.551]The biggest thing that has come up for us,
- [00:01:23.276]mixing our variety of experiences.
- [00:01:26.632]We both have experiences with Latin American countries,
- [00:01:30.259]Zimbabwe obviously, and now Nebraska,
- [00:01:32.678]and especially rural Nebraska,
- [00:01:34.721]is that these rural communities have a lot of similarities.
- [00:01:41.782]They love their lifestyle.
- [00:01:46.517]They all just kinda love where they are,
- [00:01:48.559]love what they're doing.
- [00:01:49.878]There's good, and they love the good of it.
- [00:01:55.041]I think that's kind of uniform all over,
- [00:01:57.674]in rural communities around the world
- [00:02:00.989]Often, the miscommunication that
- [00:02:04.486]happens between people in general
- [00:02:06.288]isn't what side of the political spectrum you're on,
- [00:02:09.105]but often is the divide between urban and rural.
- [00:02:12.225]And so if we can open up the communication, and if we can
- [00:02:15.098]show the value in rural communities
- [00:02:17.781]and all that they bring to the table,
- [00:02:19.603]I think that it just allows communities to thrive.
- [00:02:25.031]One thing that is true not only for Arafi
- [00:02:27.841]or for rural Nebraska, is the importance of relationships.
- [00:02:31.079]Nebraska's job market isn't great,
- [00:02:34.777]but the lifestyle is great and the relationships are -
- [00:02:39.882]for example, what brought us here,
- [00:02:41.703]and what has kept us here.
- [00:02:43.545]I think that might be something to bring into
- [00:02:45.485]the conversation about how do we capitalize
- [00:02:48.730]on the relationships for bringing or retaining our talent?
- [00:02:53.191]When you take things like missions and development projects,
- [00:02:57.410]one of the biggest benefit isn't really
- [00:03:00.673]the work you are doing, it's the solidarity that's built.
- [00:03:05.727]And that's one reason why I'd recommend this serviceship.
- [00:03:08.560]It's the solidarity that builds between the rural community
- [00:03:11.677]and some of these students is building an understanding of
- [00:03:14.282]we're in this together.
- [00:03:15.570]We all want Nebraska to be a better place.
- [00:03:18.053]We all want our rural communities to be a better place.
- [00:03:20.553]And that's the solidarity, the understanding of
- [00:03:22.908]you know, someone's on my team.
- [00:03:26.110](joyful light music)
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